A primary teacher and their sporadic views on technology in education, the world and life in general.

5 posts categorized "Computing"

We've been "messing" around with MineCraftEdu in school for a few years now. I've run several clubs focussing on developing pupils creativity and teamwork skills and over time they've created quite an impressive city world. I don't find it a gimmick, and I don't find it a distraction, as has been claimed recently by one or two educational "experts". In fact, I find that it motivates pupils to produce outstanding work.

During the Autumn term of 2015 my Deputy Headteacher mentioned that she wanted to change the school library into a rainforest themed area, and have sounds playing in it whilst children were reading books.

It seemed a perfect project for some pupils to be involved in using a Raspberry Pi, some sensors, the GPIO pins and Python, and so 'Project Axl" was created.

Last year during my PPA time, every lunchtime and afternoon break time, I watched a group of eager and focussed pupils build up a complete MineCraftEdu city.

At the end of July - with the city built, and the pupils leaving school - I wondered about how to keep their work alive. I considered how we could turn their world into a MineCraftEdu challenge based adventure.

I have uploaded their work into the MCE world library for others to download and enjoy. Here's the video that introduces the idea...